Ephesians 1:18; NLT "I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called – his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance."
I was really a know-it-all at the beginning of my career. I had just gotten out of business school with an advanced degree, and to put it bluntly, no one could tell me anything. Raring to go, I just knew I’d dazzle the higher ups with my innovative ideas and techniques. I could see myself climbing up the corporate ladder, making all the money my professors said I’d be sure to make. Well, the ladder was nowhere to be found, and none of my fancy new ideas prepared me for the monotony in the workplace that left people uninspired and burned out. I thought I knew everything, but as it turned out, I had no clue how much I didn’t know.
Life teaches all of us this lesson. As we mature, we find that even the knowledge we thought we knew so well, we didn’t know at all. There are layers underneath that we only discover through experience, time, and growth. Some find this very frustrating, but in truth it is very humbling. God said in Isaiah 55:9(NLT), “For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” Our Heavenly Father is all-knowing, all-powerful, and perfect in every way. Nothing, absolutely nothing, escapes Him. Jesus Christ teaches us in Matthew 6:8 that He knows what we need even before we ask Him. So, we can be sure that God knows us through and through, and He is intimately familiar with every detail of our lives.
God’s wisdom is the jewel of life, and through it we can built a landscape strong and expansive enough for greater blessings, but without His wisdom, we will walk around with false assumptions about what we think we know. These false assumptions lead to devastating disappointments, unrealistic expectations, and shattered dreams. God doesn’t want this for any of us. It’s why He tells us in Proverbs 4:7 that getting His wisdom is the wisest thing any of us can do; and while we’re at it, we need to gain a good understanding of how to use this wisdom.
In the Bible, we read about the miraculous things that God did thousands of years ago, but for some reason we separate ourselves from this. Men, especially, buy into the idea that their strength is in the demonstration of their efforts. And if there is any vulnerability in those efforts, many men think the answer is to get more of what they don’t have. This mindset is not useful to our souls or our spiritual well-being in Christ. It can hinder our relationship with God and destroy our relationships with others. Heavenly Father commands us in Philippians 3:3 to rely on what Jesus Christ has done for us, and to put no confidence in human effort. This doesn’t mean that we can’t physically and intelligently accomplish things, but the accomplishment of any of our endeavors is only lasting and wholly beneficial when it is sanctioned by God. We are effective for His Kingdom only when we walk by His Spirit. You and I can’t save ourselves or make ourselves what God desires us to be. Only He can do that, and we need to let Him.
There’s an inflexibility that comes with the notion that we can steer our own lives. It prevents us from being humble before God. We will not submit to Him in the way He requires because satan blinds us with a false sense of security. This has to be released, and we must surrender this inflexible way of being so that God’s healing can enter into our hearts. Often this is the great lesson many of us need to learn, and not learning it causes the same lessons to cycle back around, becoming more intense as they do.
Trusting in God’s sovereignty and brilliance is a must. Trusting in Him is the foundation upon which our lives are built. You and I don’t have to understand everything, and in fact, we understand very little. Our responsibility as God’s children is to have faith in the One who holds our tomorrows. We are to have confidence that God’s Will and Plan are magnificently flawless, and that He has structured and orchestrated the universe, and everything in it, for His glory and our supreme benefit. When we understand this, we will shift our focus away from others or ourselves and place it squarely on God. We will seek Him before we make any decision, we’ll move wherever He leads, and we’ll become totally flexible to His Will.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Communicating Honestly, Openly, and with Mutual Respect”, written for Springfield Fellowship, Inc., springfieldfellowshipinc.org© 2022. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
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